Terry Achane adoption case

The Utah Supreme Court today put a temporary hold on a trial judge's orders to return a little girl to her soldier father after she was given up for adoption without his consent two years ago.

Drill sergeant Terry Achane was waiting in Dallas airport to board a flight to Utah when he was told that a hearing scheduled for today, that would have likely reunited him with baby Teleah, was cancelled.

'He's extremely disappointed,' his attorney, Mark Wiser, told MailOnline. 'He's waited almost two years to gain custody of his daughter. Everyday without her is heart-wrenching.'

Achane's officers at Fort Jackson in South Carolina ordered him to return to the base until the court makes a final ruling.

'The decision could happen anywhere from tomorrow, to next week to a month from now,' Wiser said.

The Supreme Court said the provisional stay on the petition for emergency relief filed by the adoptive parents, Jared and Kristi Frei, would give it 'the time necessary to adjudicate the request for emergency relief.'

But the court didn't indicate how long that might take.

Wiser said it could be something as simple as one or two of the justices were not available for the hearing or that the court wanted more time to read through the information in the case.

'There is quite a bit of material,' he said.

The Freis are appealing the decision made by Fourth District Judge Darold McDade on November 20 and upheld on January 4 If the petition for 'emergency relief' is granted it means Achane, not the Freis, will have custody of Teleah while the appeal takes place Wiser said Achane had arranged time off work and Teleah's grandmother had flown to South Carolina to help out with the transition.

The sergeant had also footed the cost of flights from South Carolina to Utah as well as hotels for when he arrived 'He had to bear all the cost of that, so that's frustrating,' Wiser said. 'He's hoping to get his daughter back as soon as possible.'

The adoptive parents of a little girl given away without her father's knowledge are trying to block her return to him Achane was 'completely elated' after Judge McDade ruled late last year his baby daughter would be given back to him by mid-January after he was stripped of his parental rights to raise the child But the Utah couple who adopted her at birth quickly filed a motion asking that McDade stay his order dismissing their adoption petition and requiring the baby be returned. In January, McDade upheld his decision but the case then went to the state's high court

The Freis, who have five other children, are appealing the decision Their lawyer Larry Jenkins told ABC News n December: 'They believe the district court made some fundamental errors in its decision and they will raise those with the appropriate appellate court. Yes, they will appeal.'

The couple said they were 'deeply saddened' by the court's ruling to give Teleah back to 'a father she does not know at all.'

In December it was revealed the Utah adoption agency that organised the botched adoption had been under the scrutiny of state licensing officials for three months.

Licensing director for the Utah Department of Health and Human Services Ken Stettler told the Salt Lake City Tribune that the Adoption Center of Choice had been operating under a corrective action plan since September when its license was extended but not renewed.

The action was taken because of documentation deficiencies in some case files, Stettler told the newspaper. The extension was due to expire at the end of December - the deadline for the agency to sort out its compliance.

But the case of baby Teleah has raised new questions and prompted additional review.

Achane won the long legal battle on November 20 to gain back custody of his toddler who his wife placed with the Freis without telling him. The Utah judge ordered the girl's adoptive parents to return her to him within the next 60 days in a 48-page ruling.

Judge McDade condemned the adoption agency that handled Achane's daughter's case for refusing to disclose any information to him nearly two years ago when he learned that his child had been given away without his consent, according to the Salt Lake Tribune

On a blog about the case, the Freis have raised more than $20,000 to help with legal bills They described the arrival of Achane’s daughter in their lives as 'a righteous desire blessed to fruition by God.'

'We have not lost our conviction that we are in the right!!!!!!' Kristi Frei wrote. 'We have only ever wanted to do right by Leah, and have always felt we have been acting in her best interest to keep her with our family and raise her as our own. Our hearts have demanded it — there has never been any question to us that she is OURS!!!'

Achane said it was just days after he left his pregnant wife for his new job out of state that she quietly signed over their unborn baby to a family of seven in Utah.

The military man said that he and his wife, Tira Bland, were having marital problems not long after learning she was pregnant in 2010, leading to her decision and his now spiraling struggle despite a judge ordering the girl returned to him last October.

The now ex-husband says Bland had suggested having an abortion or giving their child up for adoption - fearing she would end up as a single mother - but he said no, encouraging their daughter's birth.

It was just months later in February of 2011 that Achane found himself sent to Fort Jackson in South Carolina for work, believing he’d leave and come back a new dad.

Ten days after his move, however, his wife went gave birth to a premature baby and signed away their child before cutting all contact with her husband.

'I was like, "Utah? Where is Utah?" I’d never been to Utah. She's never been to Utah,'" Mr Achane told the Salt Lake Tribune f the moment he first heard the bizarre and horrifying news.

Sent to live with Jared and Kristi Frei, who had spent the last few years struggling to naturally expand their family of five children, the baby found herself in the city of Spanish Fork.

'We knew that we were not done having children, but after years of sudden infertility and several miscarriages … we discovered somewhere down the line that Kristi had advanced endometriosis, and would not likely conceive or carry another child again,' the Frei family write of their struggle in a blog aimed at raising money for their court battle.

Turning to adoption, in early 2009 the Frei family grew their family by one more with a baby boy named James

Desiring to add one more child - 'a close, similar sibling' [OP: So...they wanted another black baby so they could have a matched set. Barf.] or James - they found Achane's daughter, whom they named Leah.

'Since that eventful day, we have, as a family, come to know that this dream was a righteous desire blessed to fruition by God, and that Leah would be that child - and yet, little did we know the challenges and trials that awaited us in finding and fighting for this little girl,' they wrote.

Adoption Center of Choice told the new family that Achane wasn't aware of his daughter's placement with them and that he would most likely contest it if he found out The Tribune reports that Bland had given the adoption agency Achene's former address in Texas for contact, knowing full well at the time that he was not living there With the judge's recent ruling, he noted the Freis family acknowledged the risk of the father's upset but 'decided they wanted to proceed forward with the adoptive placement anyway.' [OP: Fuck their smug, self-righteous entitlement to a stolen baby.]

Kept in the dark throughout this with months of being unable to reach his wife, Achane asked a friend to visit her home in Texas who reported that the house appeared vacant.

Feverishly calling anyone who may know where his wife could be, while fearing she may have carried out the abortion she once threatened to do, he learned from a family doctor that his wife was no longer pregnant but they could not legally disclose what had happened to the baby.

An ounce of relief only came to the horrified man when his wife finally called him in June, telling him she had signed away their baby to the Frei family ‘I believe she felt guilty at that point because she just made a call out of the blue,' he said of his ex-wife’s phone call Once he learned of his daughter's fate, he immediately tried to track his little girl down but upon contact with the adoption center they refused to disclose any information on her whereabouts.

The agency told the court in October that it was standard procedure to not share any information with a father of a potential adoptive child when asked.

'I am not a very religious person,' Achane has since told the Tribune, 'but thou shalt not steal.'

Speaking of the drawn out legal battle, he said: 'If they prolong it, that is more time away from my daughter. There are precious moments I can’t get back. ... It has been a year and a half now. There is no court order saying they have the right to my child. I just won the case. I want to get my daughter and raise my daughter,' he said.

'Children are being bought and sold. It is one thing what [adoption agencies] have been doing with unmarried biological fathers. It is in a new area when they are trying to take a child away from a married father who wants to have his child.'

When an attorney for the Frei family contacted Achane, asking him to consent to the adoption, he said no and demanded his little girl returned to him - to the Frei family's complete surprise.[OP: Complete surprise, my ass. They KNEW he hadn't consented.]

'Over the last 19 months, despite the law requiring that a father show interest in his child and at least attempt regular communication to establish a bond, the father has never shown any interest in Leah other than to hire an attorney,' the family writes in their blog.

Despite a judge's order to return the child within 60 days, the family now asks that his parental rights granting him custody of her be terminated.

They accuse him of abandoning both the mother and baby during her pregnancy and therefore demonstrating no capability for raising the girl.

'The right of a fit, competent parent to raise the parent’s child without undue government interference is a fundamental liberty interest that has long been protected by the laws and constitution of this state of the United States, and is a fundamental public policy of this state,’ said Judge McDade.

He added that there is no law requiring the father to 'prove himself' as fit to father his own child.

'Once Mr Achane contacted the Adoption Center of Choice ... to let them know he opposed the adoption and wanted his daughter back, that should have been the end of this case,' said McDade.

Not going down without a fight, the Freis vow to appeal the judge's decision, asking friends and family to support their case financially through their blo They note having paid for 'two already expensive adoptions (each costing around $25,000),' with a continuing fight only requiring more money Their online petition has since raised more than $20,000.

Source Yeah, I know it's the Daily Fail, but it's the most comprehensive article I found Here n here re some others.)

OP: I fucking cannot with this. I'm the last person to argue that men should have any say in what their partners do with their fetuses during pregnancy. But after the baby is born you can't place him or her for adoption without the father's consent. What the mother did was super gross, but the mind absolutely boggles that the adoption agency considered it a legit adoption AND that the so-called adoptive parents knew and didn't give a shit, because it was apparently all God's idea. Not to mention the fuckery that is the whole matched-set-of-black-children business, and all the racism that is no doubt behind this. Ughhhhh. Achane should get his daughter back immediately.

MODS: Sorry about the HTML in my first submission...no idea what happened there. I hope it's better now. It looks good to me when I preview it, except that I cannot for the life of me get the line breaks to show up.

Tags:

but Mormonism isn't like very conservative religious communities you'd see in the southern states.

How is it different?

They are very baby crazy, though. The goal is to have a huge horde of children. The more, the better. I think a lot of Mormons would see it as saving the souls of wayward children or something.

My mom followed the trial against the man who abducted Elizabeth Smart, and she told me at one point during the trial the prosecutor mentioned or accused Elizabeth Smart of not wanting to have children while as a result of her rape and abduction when she was 14 or 15 and apparently the people in court reacted with shock/surprise because she wouldn't want children. When my mom told me about it, I was incredibly shocked, but I also thought it was very telling about the culture and really how the worth of females is measured (but, I think that can be said of many religiously conservative communities...especially those with a specific religious majority).

A lot of ways. I'm really sorry for the length of this. XD It's just hard for a chatty person like me to par it down.

The first is the age of LDS and the history that brought them west. The founder, Joseph Smith, was more or less murdered by a gang. Of course, the things he was doing might've warranted that attacked but you know how martyrs are formed.

They traveled west afterward (abandoning their first temple -- and temples are more important in LDS views that in an average Christian view) and claimed the area for their own, and even went so far as to murder at least one other settlement (Mountain Meadow). And, in joining the union, they were forced to give up polygamy. Everything they teach is still part of the doctrine, even polygamy and the color of your skin is indicative to how much sin you have on your soul. Things they change their mind about are just set aside for later, for a "better" time.

So, you have the Christian idea of the persecution by Roman's amped up a whole lot. The outsiders killed God's prophet, forced them to change their religious practices to join the union (which they didn't really want to join in the first place), and invaded the land they've killed to defend. They have a huge chip on their shoulder. Hell, some Mormons do the wagon trail from Illinois to Utah as a kind of spiritual journey.

It's only been, maybe, 30-ish years since they've actually started loosening their practices that discriminated against non-Mormons (actually making laws to outlaw the practice of asking whether someone is a Mormon or firing someone because they aren't) but even now the Church owns so much of the land. They pretty much own all of downtown. They "rent" it to the state for really cheap, but with the side benefit of being able to force their own rules on everyone else because they own the land.

As for Church in public school, each JH and HS has a seminary building (usually just a house next door to the school that they buy.) When I was going through JH and 10th grade, you could take a seminary class as an elective during your regular day classes. During my HS, they changed it to before school, during lunch, and after school but still. The other kids know who does and doesn't go. The ones who don't are shunned.

I also thought it was very telling about the culture and really how the worth of females is measured

My across the street neighbor had to have a complete hysterectomy after her last child when she was in her 50s. She was crying because she wanted MORE children. She had at least five. I felt so bad for her.

No need to apologize for the length, the information is important. I wonder if Mormons outside of Utah are different (or maybe they're better at keeping their beliefs inside the home/Church?).

It's only been, maybe, 30-ish years since they've actually started loosening their practices that discriminated against non-Mormons

Isn't that around the time Mormons startedto depict themselves as Christian?

(which they didn't really want to join in the first place),

I didn't know that.

The ones who don't are shunned.

Just thinking about this, man I'd have been treated like a Devil or something, not only is my family not Mormon, but we're not "Abrahamic" either. Wow, just wow.

Also, while I knew about the bigotry within the faith, I didn't know how deep it was. That the amount of sin someone has is related to someone's skin color? That's frightening (on so many levels, especially when I remember that it's a part of Hinduism as well in some ways...though thankfully not my family's Hinduism).

I've heard that they are and have heard that Mormons from other areas are absolutely amazed by the snobbish attitudes they receive when they visit the state. Honestly, I never met any non-Mormons in the three years I was away (my father was in the military so after they bought the house my father had his three years of "ship" duty.)

I do remember the third degree I was given on the first day I started classes here (it my 8th grade and in January.) The girls were all wondering if everyone says they have horns or are evil or have tails, etc. It was so weird. They kept trying to get me to tell them how the outside world views them and I was just like "what?"

Isn't that around the time Mormons startedto depict themselves as Christian?

Probably. They still follow the bible. They just believe Joseph Smith (and all the church leaders) are prophets as well.

That the amount of sin someone has is related to someone's skin color?

Yeah. I know. This is what kept my family out of the LDS church, since my older sister is half black. If you ask a lay member, they'll say the prophet (the title of whomever leads the church) has had a "revelation" from God and they don't believe that anymore. However, that would mean God and God's prophet was wrong about something so (they don't generally tell people this) the teachings are still "true" but need to be set aside until the time is right or some other kind of BS like that.

I've heard that they are and have heard that Mormons from other areas are absolutely amazed by the snobbish attitudes they receive when they visit the state.

Yeah, because the Mormons I've known have been extremely nice...at least to my face.

Yeah. I know. This is what kept my family out of the LDS church, since my older sister is half black. If you ask a lay member, they'll say the prophet (the title of whomever leads the church) has had a "revelation" from God and they don't believe that anymore. However, that would mean God and God's prophet was wrong about something so (they don't generally tell people this) the teachings are still "true" but need to be set aside until the time is right or some other kind of BS like that.

Yeah, because the Mormons I've known have been extremely nice...at least to my face.

They probably are nice. Mormons are definitely a minority religion outside of Utah and that generally breeds nice people.

Are they just not aware that Jesus Christ (probably) had dark skin?

They believe that before Christ was born, the Lord guided a boat from Israel to North America. They believe that all the Natives are evil except those Israelites and that said Natives killed those poor Israelites to death. Some man named Mormon craved this saga onto golden plates before he died. Smith found them and either put on magical glasses or stuck a rock in his hat and buried his face in said hat to translate them.

Further, they believe that they're going to be Gods after they die. Their world view is that the "God" we have now was a mortal before and if they're good Mormons then they too will have be gods of their own worlds. Of course, this is just a man thing. We women won't be gods unless our man whispers our names and decides he wants to re-marry us in heaven or whatever they call it.

I'm going to of out on a limb and say that their beliefs, as such, don't include much of what one could consider reality.

Mormons are definitely a minority religion outside of Utah and that generally breeds nice people.

Yeah, but then they majorly funded PropH8...so who knows.

I'm going to of out on a limb and say that their beliefs, as such, don't include much of what one could consider reality.

That's a good point regarding really devoted Mormons, but what about the religious but less devoted Mormons? I feel like, the lack of reality can be an issue with any religion if followed literally, so I wonder how less fundamental followers deal with that. Hmm, well I guess they probably just don't believe certain things (which is something that followers of many religions often do --pick and choose what they're comfortable believing).

Yes, they did. They also formed a group with the Catholics to stop gay marriage when it first came up in HI years ago. And they did it in such a way that they kept their religion out of it.

All this is terrible, certainly. But you have to put it into perspective. Like the ten percent that Mormons *have* to give the church, the church can and does go to its members and demands certain amounts of money -- specific amounts, I mean. This is what funded the PropH8. They do this with little actual want on the side of the people (they generally come to them with "we've looked at your finances and see you can donate this much" -- remember, you have to donate 10% so they know how much you make) and they hold salvation over their head. It's a "if you want to go to heaven" sort of thing. If you protest, you stand a chance at getting excommunicated.

That's the thing that's missing in Christianity at large. The Mormon church has a prophet/ leader. There isn't such a diffuse pool of faiths to pull from. A Mormon who gets excommunicated from the church loses everyone, including family or marriages.

It's not an excuse but it is something to consider. How many people would give up everyone to say no to this? And the people don't have any say over how their money is being used anyway. There's no committee that takes the people's wishes into consideration.

This is just based on my own experience of being shunned, though. I'm not certain I can give a judgement-free view on it.

That's a good point regarding really devoted Mormons, but what about the religious but less devoted Mormons?

I dunno. I'm surrounded by really devoted Mormons. I've never met any other kind. I don't know if they truly are devoted or not but they at least put up a good front of being.

It's really complicated. On the one hand, it's hard to blame individuals who feel that the Church (the organized aspect of it) is such an integral aspect of their lives that they feel that they can/should give away their children's college savings when told to do so, on the other hand I feel that if adherents don't speak out against practices of which they're not in favor, then things won't change.

I dunno. I'm surrounded by really devoted Mormons. I've never met any other kind. I don't know if they truly are devoted or not but they at least put up a good front of being.

Yeah, it's a bit confusing. It seems that based on the way the Church is set-up it would be difficult to be a practicing Mormon and not be really involved with the organized Church. But it's also a relatively young religion, and as it ages things will probably change (I have same thoughts on like Scientology tbqh).